First Contact
“All ships reported in prepared and ready, Captain. Awaiting orders, Sir.”
“Yellow alert, ahead, one quarter, prepare defenses, on my lead,” Captain Heart stated firmly. The message was passed to several pegasi who took to their respective ships and passed the message. Within two minutes all ships had sent agreement to each other via flashing signals and pegasi.
The Galaxy began to move forward at a snails crawl through the sky over the forest with the other ships forming a flying ‘V’ formation behind it. Twilight teleported onto the bridge behind the captain, she wore her crown, was freshly groomed, and wore a purple armor covering her chest and barrel, yet through her poise she was ready to defend her ships the best she was able. A chill went through her and she ruffled her wings, which was noticed by Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow flew down and landed beside Twilight. “It’s gonna be fine, Twi. There’s nothing there, just desert and boring hot instead of boring green. You really need to chillax with me on a cloud! I’ll tie one up to the main mast and we can just get your mind off all this once we’re over the desert of never ending lameness.”
“I hope you’re right, Rainbow Dash. I’ve asked and some of the other unicorns feel something ahead of us. But I feel something more-”
“Yeah, yeah. Bad news, blah, blah. I’m gonna go join my squad and get ready for the fight that won’t happen. Catch ya later, Twi.”
Twilight didn’t turn to watch Rainbow leave, focusing on the slowly approaching feeling of dread. A feeling that she fought against to take a step back with every pace of distance they got closer to the end of the forest. She gulped and felt a knot in her throat that she could barely swallow over, then she gasped when she was touched lightly.
“Your Highness, you’re not looking so well. You may retire to your-”
“No, Captain, I’ll be fine. Once we cross the border between here and there I’m certain all this will pass like a breeze, right?”
He smiled and gave her a shove. “Princess, this is my ship and I’m ordering you to sleep for an hour. We’ve got at least six hours before we reach the edge. Please, rest so we can have you at your best.”
She relented and teleported to her room, climbed onto her bed, and rested her head on her forelegs as a book moved in front of her and she began to read for the hour. She returned two hours later and nodded to the captain. “We’re almost at the edge, I see. You just wanted me to rest and think I had hours knowing I wouldn’t take them, didn’t you?”
He smiled and nodded, looked ahead, and watched as ponies from the bow of the ship slowly reacted as though they were doused with ice water. When the sensation passed through him at the stern, he gasped and suddenly a fear he hadn’t felt for years reared itself in the pit of his stomach and bucked at his heart, sending him into a near panic before he resumed control of himself enough to simply tremble with dread.
“Crew! It’s a spell, don’t let it take your wits away! Spread the word at once,” he shouted and turned to Twilight who was at that moment trembling in her shoes with a look that defied explanation on a royal princess.
“It-it-it’ll pa-a-assss,” she hissed through clenched eyes. The feeling of terror the likes she’d never felt passed and stayed within her and she just barely kept from wetting herself and flying screaming back to the edge of the spell’s effect. She attempted to cast a spell to no avail, her mind couldn’t focus through the terror she felt.
The bow of the ship rippled and soon the sky did the same all the way as far as they could see. A moment of panic went through the crew as the ship seemed to vanish in the same way the fear had gone through them. With screaming and panic beginning to ensue, Twilight lay on her belly and covered her head with her hooves and wings until suddenly she felt normal again.
She gasped and exposed herself to the sky and sun, high and shining. She’d expected to pass into a domain of terror and monsters but as she stood she looked around at ponies gathering their wits on deck then ahead at the sprawling countryside. Cities could be seen with buildings reaching the cloud layer as high as Cloudsdale while seemingly no messy signs of industry could be detected by eyesight.
The air was as clean and pure as the plains in Equestria and the canyon they were coasting over resounded a quiet breeze below them as a non-menacing slight howl as it passed continuously.
It was a scene of relative beauty and inspired awe that was completely unexpected by every single pony on each ship that passed through until they all came to a full stop at Captain Heart’s order.
“Princess, it seems you were right about that feeling… I’ve never been so,” he paused and gathered himself, “Ma’am, we’re through and it seems each ship has made it as well. Signal the other ships to send scouts up to survey the land for locals and report to me and Princess Twilight immediately.”
A scampering of hooves told Twilight that the message was being sent while she trotted from the poop deck to the bow and gazed at the amazing city before them. One of at least three I can tell from just where I can see, if the spires are an indication of city location. There would certainly be dozens of smaller towns between each city and that means potentially tens of thousands of new friends and allies to make just from here to the horizon!
Twilight smiled at the prospect before taking notice of something approaching them fast. She grinned at the potential! Pegasi! It has to be, there’s going to be a grand welcoming for us. They’ll introduce us to their princess, or maybe prince! What if they have a democracy or-” her thoughts were interrupted when a shout came from below the deck below and a shield appeared before the vessel.
With a loud thump followed by a shockwave and what would have brought scorching heat had the shield not appeared as it had, Twilight realized a missile had exploded. It had sent ponies not tethered to the deck flying to their sides or over the railing. A second explosion buckled the shield and singed the hair across many of the ship crew at the stern.
More shields appeared in front of each ship that had arrived and the missiles were either absorbed by the barriers or teleported behind the ships to exit into the forest and detonate on their own.
“What’s happening?!” Twilight shouted as she teleported back to the captain’s side. “Why’re they firing at us? We didn’t do anything!”
“We entered their home and they’re protecting it, is what I say!” he shouted over an explosion.
“Rear at full! Formation, Phalanx, Charlie! Barricade them at all costs,” Commander Sharp yelled and the message was conveyed between all the Equestrian ships. With impressive skill, the ships formed a phalanx two deep, three wide, with the Galaxy behind them. Shields combined from the front of the first row of ships and created a wall that didn’t waver from the bombardment.
Rainbow landed with two other mares, one in each foreleg, both burned with angry expressions. “Caught these two falling from the explosions. Get ready for a fight, Twi, they don’t seem to be too happy to see us.”
Twilight glared briefly at Rainbow before realizing her misplaced frustration. “I understand. Captain, hold formation and defend our position. No pony is authorized to hurt the attacking ponies, we want to show them we mean no harm and come in peace.”
“Ma’am, with all due respect I have to disagree! There are weapons meant to kill coming at us and it’s putting us at risk every second we stay. Let’s leave these ponies to their own devices, it seems they’re doing just fine as it is.”
“And what? Come back in a decade, a century?!” Twilight shouted at him, opening her wings and towering over the stallion who didn’t waver, “I’m not going to wait that long and it seems the damage has been done. If we leave they may follow us and attack Equestria at an unknown time as well as every settlement between here and there, or they might strengthen their defenses and take each ship that arrives in the future captive, at best. No, we have to make contact and hope they learn we don’t mean any harm.” Twilight snapped to look at the helmsman.
“Send the message to move forward and we’ll come close to the ground at the far side of the canyon, deploy some armored but unarmed ponies, and begin showing them we are kind and forgiving. Make sure no pony opens fire, use all available energy to keep those shields up! We don’t know anything about them and we can’t let war be a language they know we speak.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Ahead one-half to berth at the canyon edge. Phalanx formation wall Delta, on my mark we move!”
The message was relayed from Captain to his crew and he lifted a flare gun and fired it over the side of the craft. With a lurch the ship moved in sync with the six others as guards across the canyon. The ships slowed to a stop and ponies from each tribe disembarked from the Galaxy and formed a handsome platoon that held still, even through the occasional explosion ahead of them.
The temperature was warm without the explosions sending waves of heat over them all and soon the missiles stopped, instead a single beam of bright blue light shone from the center of the city they were in and soon a light in the distance appeared, then another and another and in the far distance more seemed to turn on like lights turning on in sequence.
“Twilight,” Rainbow hovered beside her, “what’s with the lights?”
“Rainbow?” she looked at the pegasi who should have been leading her squad in recon, “it’s either a message or a warning. Whatever the case, I don’t like this at all. Captain, What do you think?”
The captain was watching the city and how calm it still seemed, yet there was no movement he’d seen when they had first passed through. “Do ya hear that?” The crew strained their ears and heard something in the distance. “That’s a siren. And not a good one, I reckon. The damage may be done, yer highness. I say we wait’n see what happens next.”
“Perhaps they’ll send an envoy…”
“Yeah, Twi. They’re gonna send a buncha ponies to make peace after tryin’ ta blow us up,” Rainbow snarked.
“Rainbow! We have to maintain hope, if you can’t do that go below deck and hide in the spa!”
“Hey! What’re you gettin’ all mad at me for?!” Rainbow shouted back. “I’m on this boring vacation with you because I’m your friend, not because I didn’t have anything better to do back home! Now it gets fun and you just wanna sit on our flanks? We’d better handle this right, Twi, or we’ll be looking at our first war in hundreds of years and it’ll be over something dumb.”
“You’re…” Twilight fumed and snorted, “right,” she frowned, “Rainbow, take your squad and fly up ahead and see if you can find a town hall or central office where we can meet with the town leadership and convey our intentions. If anything even seems dangerous I need you to come back and let us know so we can try something else. This can’t turn into a fight because they won’t listen. “
Rainbow smirked. “Can I put on the speed?”
“Only if you don’t go more than a length ahead of your squad, Rainbow. I don’t need them or you to get hurt because you wanted to show off.”
“Hey, I’m all about being awesome, but not at the cost of my friends. I’ll be back before you know it,” Rainbow flew over the edge and then took several ponies with her around the shield and toward the town.
“Be careful, Rainbow,” Twilight mumbled. “Captain Heart, Commander Strong, we need to prepare for another attack, just in case. The shield bearers aren’t going to be able to hold this constantly so we need to bring the shield up as needed and rotate them on a shot by shot basis.”
“Let’s just hope that these ponies don’t bombard us at once or it might end bad.”
“The captain’s right, Princess Twilight. If we get overwhelmed then we may lose a part of the shield. I suggest we wait until we know what’s happening with their leadership to make a move that could be even seen as hostile, but we should prepare to have an offense as well.”
“I don’t like that, Commander,” Twilight frowned, “it limits our options in the now and in the future it could hurt our mission. But,” she relented, “go ahead and make preparations for worst case scenarios while we have time.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Commander Sharp saluted and after Twilight nodded he left to plan while the situation remained tense.
A pegasi landed and panted. “Captain, we’ve spotted hundreds of objects leaving the city in all directions. They seem to be abandoning their land to get away from us.”
The captain narrowed his eyes at the center of the city. “Or running from an attack,” he mumbled. “Princess, can you make a shield strong enough?”
“Me? Yes, but not as well as my brother, Shining Armor.”
“It may be all we need,” he said sternly, “do you see the light in the city? It’s changed from blue to teal and is shifting still.”
Twilight squinted, taking in the sight. “Huh? What do you think it means?”
He turned his head away from Twilight. “Phalanx, formation High-Alpha, now!” A few seconds later the message was relayed and the ships formed a tight arrowhead with the Galaxy at the rear. “Please,” he whispered gruffly, “not again. Don’t let it come to a fight, please.”
Twilight glanced at him, having heard the end of his quiet prayer as the light caught her eye. It began to sparkle in a beautiful cacophony of colors and sounds of popping like firecrackers at a distance before the light turned off and silence fell.
Twilight gulped and watched, waited… then a green flash of brilliant light that belied its destructive power behind beauty shot from the cityscape into the sky and pulsed once before it expanded to thrice its size and hovered in place over the city. Twilight readied a shield spell that would cover the ships in a dome and hopefully deflect debris if it exploded.
It focused its energy into a single point and Twilight didn’t hesitate to erect the most powerful shield she could in a cone. The energy discharged and deflected around the cone, around the ships and into the forest and the city nearby.
Fire erupted beyond the barrier as the energy burned through the trees like a lightsaber through a loaf of bread scorching into the earth around Twilight’s fleet and into the city as the excess energy bled from the sphere before flashing once in a final pulse that scorched the top of every building, street, and roasted any pony that its light touched below it, leaving devastation unlike the Equestrians had seen since Tirek, only this was self inflicted.
Twilight’s shield collapsed by her own will and she panted once. “That wasn’t very strong… Captain,” she stopped as the distant and brief sound of agonized screaming reached their ships.
“Sweet Celestia,” the commander muttered as he watched the light fade from the city. Carts crashing to the ground before they could escape as their drivers were unable to pilot them. The smoke rising from the city was obvious and they knew what it was from.
“Captain, begin a search for survivors and,” she was silenced by a falling object to the ships port side. Then another and another. Twilight shut her eyes tight as her ponies screamed, pegasi took to the air and plummeted after their falling friends that were outside Twilight’s shield.
Rainbow Dash landed on the deck tumbling over herself, scorched feather and mane still smoking. The look of sorrow on her was enough to convey her feelings, but Twilight had to ask. “Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow nodded. “Five of them shielded me. I, didn’t ask them or tell them to, but they few between me and the light like a wall. I watched Lightning Flash’s eyes as her back was scorched and her feathers, then her mane. Celestia have mercy, I watched her-”
Twilight and two other crewponies hugged Rainbow tightly as the cyan mare broke down and cried. “It’s okay, Rainbow. We’ll settle this in the only way we can,” she said looking at the smoking city with a frown and moving Rainbow’s forelegs to the nearest pony. She took flight and flew towards the city, stopping at the edge of her ships’ defenses.
“Who are you?! What kind of ponies would do something so terrible to their own kind and to newcomers that they don’t know?” she bellowed in her loudest voice cracking glass across the city as her voice carried.
A unicorn hologram appeared in the center city and looked at the seven ships with disdain. “Provosh plitarra ovbla Trannu Platinum H’vaantra?!”
Twilight’s ears perked and she opened her wings, flying high over her ships. She inhaled deeply. “Trannu Platinum? Ithor Trannu Twilight Sparkle, hovar Equestria!”
The ponies below her on the ships listened intently as Twilight spoke easily in what seemed to be Old Ponish, but few of them could understand even part of what was being said.
“Hovar ‘Equestria’, Trannu Twilight Sparkle?! Lop ithicar latice draota!”
Twilight flew back at the loud word and retorted quickly. A few more sentences were exchanged before Twilight, without a word, teleported away, to the shock of her crew.
“Lads! Prepare for combat, the Princess is missing!”
Twilight appeared over the point where the hologram originated and shielded herself as she dove like a hawk into the top floor skylight, landed intimidatingly perfectly as glass rained on her shield. “You attacked my fleet and hurt, almost killed some of my little ponies. Who do you think you are?” she growled.
The six unicorn mares in robes of lace and crystals stood in shocked fear at the Princess’ sudden arrival, their eyes glowing white. They spoke in union. “We six are the council of this edge city that guards against the Servants of Windigo. We know of your heralding, that they will follow you and lay waste to our lands. We will destroy ourselves before we bow to you and your lords as those in our past had.”
Twilight’s horn lit with magic. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, my ancestors defeated the Windigoes two-thousand years ago and have lived in relative peace with one another for the past thousand years. The land founded by all three tribes is called Equestria and I am one of their princesses,” her horn light faded and she lowered her shield.
“I come in peace in the name of our entire country and wish to exchange knowledge and culture, not weapon fire.”
The six mares blinked, their eyes changing to light yellow. “I am using these six as a vessel and notice you did not attack us, even though your defenses indicate you have sufficient power to. I was not able to take control of the situation before they activated their defenses and I do not share their concerns. I am High Matriarch Platinum and greet you, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and welcome you to our land, the Land of Platinum. We’ve been waiting for your arrival.”
“My arrival?”
“Well, the arrival of a unihorn or other to come. While these six will not be able to remember what I say I will tell you that these are the lands that were once Unicornia, birthplace of the Unicorn Tribe.”
Twilight’s jaw clenched, holding back the torrent of questions she wanted to ask. A few seconds passed before she exhaled loudly. “I come from the land that all three tribes founded after the Windigo attack. We have much to discuss.”
The mared nodded in unison. “I will convey your message of peace to these vessels and they will serve you as though you should have been when you arrived. They are at your beck and call while I gather my own royal council to begin negotiations. You may never see me in the fur, but know I mean all outsiders the best.”
Twilight stood tall and smiled. “I look forward to our future together.”
The six nodded and their eyes flashed white, then returned normal again. They bowed their horns to Twilight. “We apologize for what we’ve done and will atone for the remainder of our days. Defenses have been shut off, offenses as well. We extend our horns in friendship and invite you into our land as welcome honored guests.”
Twilight sighed, opened her wings, and spoke. “I need to convey your message to my fleet, when I return I hope to exchange words for the first time with your leadership about how you welcome guests to your lands and about lowering that shield so we can communicate back and forth with our kingdom.”
“It will be discussed.”
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Interesting...I know where I would go from here, but I'm curious to see what you have planned. Keep up the excellent work!
Dammit, I can never get away with one decent comment, huh?
Just noticed this:
8596598
But 'will' was the answer, all along!
😂
Thanks!
So they got tirek type beam lasers?....
Strong offense and defense it seems. But as i'm quite sure they're racist towards every other race not unicorn.... there's going to be a lot of friction.....
8596622
I certainly hope to find out with you. I only have two more events to reach, ANYTHING that happens between now and the actual end is totally up in the air.
Thanks for reading and I appreciate you!
8596626
folder*
*puts fic to
I smell a colossal amount of bullshit.